Russian bailiffs have started evicting residents of infamous Sredneuralsk women's monastery, formerly taken over by now-arrested schema monk Sergiy, the Federal Bailiffs Service (FBS) in Sverdlovsk Region said on Wednesday
YEKATERINBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th April, 2021) Russian bailiffs have started evicting residents of infamous Sredneuralsk women's monastery, formerly taken over by now-arrested schema monk Sergiy, the Federal Bailiffs Service (FBS) in Sverdlovsk Region said on Wednesday.
The monk's lawyers confirmed that security officers entered the territory of the monastery. According to the FBS, bailiffs received a court warrant to evict the monastery tenants over multiple offenses, including violations in urban planning, fire safety, and sanitary conditions.
A riot police cordon was set up around the monastery, and the premises were shut down but for security and emergency services, as reported by a Sputnik correspondent. The authorities are providing transportation means to take the displaced people to their new addresses.
"Those who want to return to the places of their permanent residence will be provided with the necessary assistance," Vice-Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region Sergey Bidonko told reporters.
According to the official, families with children are provided with hotel rooms and three meals daily, while people who need special care are offered accommodation in local medical and social institutions.
The Sredneuralsk nuns are still going to appeal the eviction verdict, their lawyer, Konstantin Stikhin, told Sputnik.
Stikhin said that the Yekaterinburg diocese offered the nuns to relocate to any other monastery after they refused all other proposed accommodation options.
In 2005, the excommunicated schema monk, whose civil name is Nikolay Romanov, founded a female monastery in Sverdlovsk, where he continued to preach even after separation from the Church. Sergiy continuously incited people to protest against what he described as "ungodly self-isolation" and "Satan's electronic camp," referring to the COVID-19 quarantine. In December, the monk was charged with inciting suicide.
The Verkhnepyshminsky City Court of the Sverdlovsk Region will hold a hearing on May 11 to review the prosecutor's request to shut down the Sredneuralsk monastery.
